PEER GYNT
by Henrik Ibsen
ACT FIVE
SCENE TWO
[Close under the land, among sunken rocks and surf. The ship
sinks. The jolly-boat, with two men in her, is seen for a moment
through the scud. A sea strikes her; she fills and upsets. A shriek
is heard; then all is silent for a while. Shortly afterwards the
boat appears floating bottom upwards.]
[PEER GYNT comes to the surface near the boat.]
PEER
Help! Help! A boat! Help! I'll be drowned!
Save me, oh Lord-as saith the text!
[Clutches hold of the boat's keel.]
THE COOK [comes up on the other side].
Oh, Lord God-for my children's sake,
have mercy! Let me reach the land!
[Seizes hold of the keel.]
PEER
Let go!
THE COOK
Let go!
PEER
I'll strike!
THE COOK
So'll I!
PEER
I'll crush you down with kicks and blows!
Let go your hold! She won't float two!
THE COOK
I know it! Yield!
PEER
Yield you!
THE COOK
Oh yes!
[They fight; one of the COOKS hands is disabled; he clings on with
the other.]
PEER
Off with that hand!
THE COOK
Oh, kind sir-spare!
Think of my little ones at home!
PEER
I need my life far more than you,
for I am lone and childless still.
THE COOK
Let go! You've lived, and I am young!
PEER
Quick; haste you; sink;-you drag us down.
THE COOK
Have mercy! Yield in heaven's name!
There's none to miss and mourn for you-
[His hand slips; he screams:]
I'm drowning!
PEER [seizing him].
By this wisp of hair
I'll hold you; say your Lord's Prayer, quick!
THE COOK
I can't remember; all turns black-
PEER
Come, the essentials in a word-!
THE COOK
Give us this day-!
PEER
Skip that part, Cook;
you'll get all you need, safe enough.
THE COOK
Give us this day-
PEER
The same old song!
One sees you were a cook in life-
[The COOK slips from his grasp.]
THE COOK [sinking].
Give us this day our-
[Disappears.]
PEER
Amen, lad!
to the last gasp you were yourself.-
[Draws himself up on to the bottom of the boat.]
So long as there is life there's hope-
THE STRANGE PASSENGER [catches hold of the boat].
Good morning!
PEER
Hoy!
THE PASSENGER
I heard you shout.-
It's pleasant finding you again.
Well? So my prophecy came true!
PEER
Let go! Let go! 'Twill scarce float one!
THE PASSENGER
I'm striking out with my left leg.
I'll float, if only with their tips
my fingers rest upon this ledge.
But apropos: your body-
PEER
Hush!
THE PASSENGER
The rest, of course, is done for, clean-
PEER
No more!
THE PASSENGER
Exactly as you please.
[Silence.]
PEER
Well?
THE PASSENGER
I am silent.
PEER
Satan's tricks!-
What now?
THE PASSENGER
I'm waiting.
PEER [tearing his hair].
I'll go mad!-
What are you?
THE PASSENGER [nods].
Friendly.
PEER
What else? Speak!
THE PASSENGER
What think you? Do you know none other
that's like me?
PEER
Do I know the devil-?
THE PASSENGER [in a low voice].
Is it his way to light a lantern
for life's night-pilgrimage through fear?
PEER
Ah, come! When once the thing's cleared up,
you'd seem a messenger of light?
THE PASSENGER
Friend,-have you once in each half-year
felt all the earnestness of dread?
PEER
Why, one's afraid when danger threatens;-
but all your words have double meanings.
THE PASSENGER
Ay, have you gained but once in life
the victory that is given in dread?
PEER [looks at him].
Came you to ope for me a door,
'twas stupid not to come before.
What sort of sense is there in choosing
your time when seas gape to devour one?
THE PASSENGER
Were, then, the victory more likely
beside your hearth-stone, snug and quiet?
PEER
Perhaps not; but your talk befooled me.
How could you fancy it awakening?
THE PASSENGER
Where I come from, there smiles are prized
as highly as pathetic style.
PEER
All has its time; what fits the taxman,
so says the text, would damn the bishop.
THE PASSENGER
The host whose dust inurned has slumbered
treads not on week-days the cothurnus.
PEER
Avaunt thee, bugbear! Man, begone!
I will not die! I must ashore!
THE PASSENGER
Oh, as for that, be reassured;-
one dies not midmost of Act Five.
[Glides away.]
PEER
Ah, there he let it out at last;-
he was a sorry moralist.
End Scene Two
Act Five--Scene Three
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